Ambassador Dzienisienka: Information on Janysh Bakiyev's Stay in Minsk Dubious as It Received from Opposition

The Belarusian ambassador to Kyrgyzstan on Thursday questioned the report that Janysh Bakiyev is staying in Belarus.

“I don't quite trust the photograph showing the brother of Kyrgyzstan's ex-president,”

He explained that the photograph, which shows Mr. Bakiyev on a downtown street in Minsk, had been posted on the Internet by a Belarusian opposition activist.

“Anyway, we will communicate the Kyrgyz Republic's concern to the Belarusian leadership,”

However, Mr. Dzienisienka himself alluded to unconfirmed reports while criticizing the Kyrgyz authorities.

“If Janysh Bakiyev travels to countries unhindered, that means that not everything is OK inside the Kyrgyz Republic, which, according to media reports, he has already repeatedly visited,”

Janysh (Janysh) Bakiyev, who is wanted by Kyrgyzstan's law enforcement agencies and Interpol for “grave criminal offenses,” was spotted and photographed on August 17 by Belarusian opposition activist Mikhail Pashkievich.

Mr. Bakiyev, who was the head of Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s presidential guard service, was photographed along with Tahir Rysaliev, 55, the former deputy head of the service who was a fellow university student of Janysh Bakiyev; and Rustam Sayduev, 36, a friend of Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s son Maksim.

All the three are the prime suspects in the murder in March 2009 of Medet Sadyrkulov, a former head of the Presidential Administration; Sergei Slepchenko, director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and Kubat Sulaymanov, the driver of the car they were in.

Janysh Bakiyev is also believed to have given the order to shoot at a crowd of protesters in Bishkek in April 2010, which left more than 80 people dead.

The photograph prompted Kyrgyzstan to recall its ambassador from Belarus and led to protests in front of the Belarusian embassy in Bishkek.

On August 28, people infuriated by Belarus' refusal to arrest and extradite Janysh Bakiyev attacked the embassy, throwing stones at the building and trying to break through the fence around it.

Speaking at Thursday's news conference, Mr. Dzienisienka described the attack as a carefully orchestrated “provocation” linked to a struggle between Kyrgyz political forces. He said that the stones hurled at the embassy had been brought to the scene in women's purses.

The ambassador expressed certainty that the attack would not harm relations between Belarus and Kyrgyzstan.

Janysh Bakiyev has close ties with his brother Kurmanbek, who fled Kyrgyzstan after being overthrown as a result of violent anti-government protests in his country and resurfaced in Minsk in late April 2010. He was offered refuge by Aliaksandr Lukashenka, who said later that he had received Mr. Bakiyev as a head of state, not as an outlaw.

According to unconfirmed reports, Kurmanbek Bakiyev was granted Belarusian citizenship in 2010. Earlier this year, he reportedly bought a house on the outskirts of Minsk for $2 million.

The former Kyrgyz president has five brothers: Janysh, Kanybek, Marat, Akmat and Adyl. One more brother, Zhusup, died in 2006.

Learn more on Janysh Bakiyev's Stay in Minsk from Nasha Niva

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